Promoting social cohesion and development in the Community Centre of Arbat (Iraqi Kurdistan) through a series of activities involving the youth and women population, including the Iraqi displaced community, the Syrian refugee community and the host Kurdish community. This is the aim of 'Horizons of Peace and Development in Arbat', a new programme funded by UNDP and German Cooperation, recently launched in Iraqi Kurdistan for a duration of seven months. The implementation of the project will be made possible by the cooperation with Civil Development Organisation - CDO, Democratic Human Rights Development Centre - DHRD and the Directorate for Arts and Cultures of the Governorate of Sulaymaniyah.
The aim of the project is to support the Arbat Community Centre, targeting a total of 1,700 young people and women, already active within their communities, through a series of cultural, sports and peacebuilding activities aimed at promoting social cohesion and building bonds of trust between the refugee, displaced and host communities. Young activists will be involved in meetings, gatherings and workshops that will focus on resolving social tensions between the host community and the displaced and refugee communities living in the Arbat area through participatory processes that promote social cohesion and peacebuilding.
At the end of the training, these young activists will acquire specific skills to be able to analyse and prevent the causes of conflicts, and then become part of Conflict Prevention Teams (CPT), modelled on what has already been built in the Youth Centres opened in Mosul, Iraq.
In parallel, psycho-social workers will be trained to intervene in the centre, providing support to communities in need. Training courses will also be organised within the centre to manage cases of Gender Based Violence (GBV), provide psychological support, as well as sessions on non-formal education and the prevention of violent extremism.
